Pombalism and antipombalism in Brazil: representations of educational reforms in the centenary and bicentenary of the Marquis of Pombal

Abstract:

This article seeks to identify and analyze the way in which the educational reforms promoted during the administration of the minister of the king D. José I were represented in two moments that, although belonging to different contexts, have in common the fact that they motivated the organization of events, celebrations and, above all, publications about the marquis of Pombal: the centenary of his death, celebrated in 1882, and his bicentenary, in 1982. Our goal is to understand how the pombalist and antipombalist currents had repercussions or interfered in the historical readings and interpretations of the Pombaline educational reforms, based on the analysis of some texts (biographical, essayistic and historiographical) published on these two occasions.

Keywords:
antipombalism; history of education; Marquis of Pombal; pombalism

Resumo:

Este artigo tem por objetivo identificar e analisar o modo como as reformas do ensino promovidas durante a gestão do ministro do reide Portugal D. José I foram representadas em dois momentos que, embora pertençam a contextos bem diversos, têm em comum o fato de que motivaram a organização de eventos, festejos e, sobretudo, publicações acerca do marquês de Pombal: o centenário de sua morte, celebrado em 1882, e o seu bicentenário, em 1982. Nosso objetivo é compreender o modo como as correntes pombalistas e antipombalistas repercutiram ou interferiram nas leituras e interpretações históricas das reformas pombalinas do ensino, a partir da análise de alguns textos (biográficos, ensaísticos e historiográficos) publicados nessas duas ocasiões.

Palavras-chave:
antipombalismo; história da educação; Marquês de Pombal; pombalismo

Resumen:

Este artículo busca identificar y analizar la forma en que las reformas educativas impulsadas durante la administración del ministro de D. José I han sido vistas en dos momentos que, si bien representan contextos muy diferentes, tienen en común El hecho de que motivaron la organización de eventos, festejos y, sobre todo, publicaciones sobre El marqués de Pombal: El centenario de sumuerte en el año 1882, y subicentenario, celebrado en 1982. Nuestro objetivo es comprender cómo las corrientes pombalistas y antipombalistas resonaron o interferieron em las lecturas e interpretaciones históricas de las reformas educativas pombalinas, a partir del análisis de algunos textos (biográficos, ensayísticos e historiográficos) publicados en estas dos ocasiones.

Palabras clave:
antipombalismo; historia de la educación; Marqués de Pombal; pombalismo

Introduction

The historical meaning of the political actions Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, known as Marquis of Pombal (1699-1782), undertook was always eclipsed by passions that have driven two antagonistic and competing currents for over two centuries: one antipombalist, for the cruelty of his punishments, and the other pombalist or philopombalist, for his innovative economic and educational measures. The effects and implications of this bipolarity of representations⁵ about Pombal affect almost every bibliography addressing the topic. Those who praise him celebrate his economic, educational, cultural, and social reforms, the filling of accusation processes against emergent masonic stores, as well as the new legislation that promoted tolerance and integration to new Christians, enslaved black people of Portugal, and indigenous peoples of Brazil. In contrast, those who oppose him condemn the persecutory practices of his government, above all the expulsion of the Jesuits and the violence with which he condemned and tortured the population groups that protested his reforms, as in, for instance, the execution of the Távora family and the repression against the fishermen’s village of Trafaria and the wine merchants from Porto.

This article aims to identify and analyze how the teaching reforms promoted during the administration of the minister of D. José I were represented in two moments. Despite belonging to different contexts, both occasions motivated the organization of events, celebrations, and especially publications about the Marquis of Pombal, namely: his death centenary, celebrated in 1882, and his bicentenary in 1982. The objective is to comprehend the impacts or interferences of the pombalist and antipombalist currents in historical readings and interpretations of Pombaline educational reforms, based on the analysis of biographical, essayistic, and historiographical texts published in both occasions.

Antipombalism

The first manifestations against the minister of D. José I took place during his administration through protests and popular uprisings or critical and satirical manuscripts and publications which, if discovered, were prohibited, and their authors were arrested or exiled. As Lopes (2002) observes, all works printed during Pombal’s lifetime favor him, except for two: O juízo da verdadeira causa do terramoto (1756), by the Italian Jesuit Gabriel Malagrida (1689- 1761), who died in a bonfire; and Pastoral by D. Frei Miguel da Anunciação (1703-1779), from November 8, 1768, in which he condemned some works littered with regalism - this publication cost him more than eight years in the prison of Pedrouços. Therefore, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo looked after his own biography, creating, from the beginning of his administration, a positive image of his actions by means of a powerful advertising scheme that would include symbolic paintings, medals, panegyrics, sonnets, and plays in his honor (Teixeira, 1999). In this sense, he exerted absolute control over his biography, purging all writings that criticized or demerited his government or himself.

Nevertheless, if his supporters and sycophants glorified him during his administration, only a few stayed beside him after the death of D. José I and his fall from the government, in the so-called ‘viradeira’. Consequently, in the reign of D. Maria I (1734-1816), many published satirical poems, accusations, and attacks towards the former minister, including the yanking of the medallion with his effigy, which was under the equestrian statue of D. José I inaugurated in 1775. The Marquis, bedridden and weak due to disease in his old age, eloquently insisted on defending his administrative acts in long writings, which became one of the highlights of his autobiographic and memorialist production (Falcon, 1993). The medallion was replaced only in 1833, during the regency of D. Pedro IV, D. Pedro I of Brazil.

Therefore, the antipombalist discourse was largely reproduced in satirical verses against the deposed minister with the support of Maria’s reign (Brito, 1990). Disease and the psychological torture he suffered with the process he had to answer caused his death. Moribund, the queen did not authorize the transfer of his corpse to the grave he had prepared in the church of Mercês in Lisbon, where he was baptized. Thereby, his mortal remains stayed at the Church of Cardal, in Pombal, being brutally violated by French people and soldiers, during the Napoleonic invasions of 1811. Only in 1856, the Lisbon Board authorized the transfer of his remainder bones to his hometown (Franco & Figueiredo, 2018).

However, the publication of O perfil do Marquês de Pombal in the year of Pombal’s death centenary, by Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890), led the mystification process of D. José’s minister to its peak. By contrasting the Pombaline glorification the Portuguese masonry promoted, which equally demonized the Jesuits, the novelist has fixed Pombal’s image as a sanguinary, tyrant, and oppressor despot. Therefore, masonic stores advertised Pombal intensively, making him an anachronistic defender of liberalism and provoking an avalanche of commemorative texts, paintings, events, and lectures both in Portugal and Brazil. Meanwhile, Camilo outlined the ‘profile’ of a cruel minister, although he aimed to hide his libel with information, details, and historical erudition. His work has reverberated in many others, including biographies, novels, and paintings, making Pombal a bipolar myth, that is, an object of ideologically inverse discourses which are equally compromised by anachronisms and judgements of value (Franco & Rita, 2004).

In Brazil, antipombalism can be identified more evidently in the educational historiography. By denying teaching-related initiatives from previous centuries, such antipombalism embraced the discourse Fernando de Azevedo (1894-1974) inaugurated in his Cultura brasileira (1943), in which the author disqualifies the role of Pombaline reforms. This discourse was reproduced as a verdict in many publications of the area. As Bontempi Junior (1995) noticed, the strength of Fernando de Azevedo’s work within the Brazilian educational thinking has projected its shadow even in the universe of available journals to be chosen, which explains why, at least until the end of the 1980’s, there are so little studies about the periods not privileged in A cultura brasileira, like the Pombaline⁶ one.

To Azevedo (1971), the Pombaline reforms had only disrupted the solid structure of Jesuit education, based on a roughly unified system, which led to a disperse and fragmented teaching of single classes under the responsibility of lay and ill-prepared teachers. In his opinion, the Jesuit pedagogical basis remained the same after they were expelled from the country, given that the missionary priests conserved schools aimed at educating their clergymen, in addition to creating seminars for a secular clergy, constituted by ‘uncle-priests’ and mill chaplains. They continued the Ignatian pedagogical action, kept their ‘methodology’ and study program, which left out natural sciences, as well as “[...] languages and modern literatures”, according to the author (Azevedo, 1971, p. 556, our translation).

Pombalism

If we were to map the emergence of Pombalism, we would have to start with the first attempts to restore the Marquis’ image by the Portuguese Liberals of the 1820 Revolution, which transformed him into an anachronical precursor of liberalism, as Falcon (1993) has observed. Many of these Liberals, mostly lawyers, doctors, and soldiers, were masons or related to masonry, like in Brazil. They were also involved in journal publications, as well as the formation of what came to be considered ‘public opinion’ (Ramos, 2009), ostensibly opposing the Society of Jesus, which had started to regain progressive social preponderance since its rehabilitation by the pope Pius VII in 1814.

Another sign of Pombalism appears in 1826, when two important works of literary history were published: Resumo da história literária de Portugal seguido da história literária do Brasil, by the French author Ferdinand Denis (1798-1890), and Parnaso lusitano, by Almeida Garret (1799-1854). They describe the Pombaline epoch as a period of restauration or regeneration of Portuguese language and literature. Denis (2018, p. 289, 292, our translation) discusses what he calls ‘improvement in the state of language and literature’. In this occasion, he commends Pombal for his anti-Jesuitism, claiming that the works of academies D. João V (1706-1750) founded “[...] fatigued more than taught [...],” until “[...] a minister, whose genius knew how to submit and construct everything [...],” “[...] served Portugal in two big ways: he expelled the Jesuits and tried to rebuild literature.” In turn, Garret (1826, p. 38-39, our translation), when he wrote his “Bosquejo da história da poesia e língua portuguesa [...]” [Outline of the history of Portuguese poetry and language] as an Introduction to Parnaso lusitano, disqualifies the literature produced in D. João V’s time, stating that it was only developed during “[...] the ministry of the Marquis of Pombal”.

Not by chance, in 1833 the image of Pombal as a mystified hero was consecrated with the replacement of the medallion under the equestrian statue of D. José I by D. Pedro IV - D. Pedro I of Brazil. However, Pombal’s historical figure was explicitly used to serve causes that did not exist at the time of D. José I in the work O marquês de Pombal. Lance d’olhos sobre a sua ciência, política e administração; ideias liberais que o dominavam, plano e primeiras tentativas democráticas, published in 1869 by Manuel Emídio Garcia (1838-1904), mason and law professor at University of Coimbra (Garcia, 1869).

As Franco and Rita (2004) noticed, Emídio Garcia reedited the above-mentioned work with different titles, new arguments, and approaches over the second half of 19^th century; nonetheless, he kept the anachronical attempt to make Pombal a sort of patron of the Portuguese modernity, persistently hiding obscurantist aspects of his governance. This is a flagrant example of anachronism whose paradigm is repeated in similar works, above all in 1882, when Pombal’s death centenary was celebrated.

Teaching reforms in the Pombaline centenary

According to Bebiano (1982), the idea to celebrate Pombal’s centenary came from the positivist Francisco Augusto Correia Barata (1847-1950), professor of the Faculty of Philosophy at University of Coimbra. The deans’ council finally approved the proposal and the program of university celebrations in a meeting with all professors, held in January 26, 1882. Its historical meaning, however, must be understood in the juncture of the political situation Portugal was in the end of the 19^th century, when terms such as republic, socialism, and federation generated several debates, affiliations, and dissidences, especially in the 1870’s.

Names like the aforementioned Emídio Garcia, Latino Coelho (1825-1891), and Teófilo Braga (1843-1924), among others, had an important role in the formulation and diffusion of the republican ideology, which seized centenary celebrations of ‘national heroes’ to disseminate their premises. This happened in the tercentenary of Camões, celebrated in 1880 (Oliveira, 2014). Such events, therefore, were key moments of the discursive process of Portuguese nationalism, becoming the leitmotiv of republican propaganda. However, as Bebiano (1982) explains, men from several political hues, including monarchists and even socialists, remained linked to the Order for a long time until the end of the century, when the Grand Orient and the Republican Party had their approximation consolidated. In any case, Portuguese masonry contained at least two unifying traces in Pombal’s centenary period: liberalism and anti-Jesuitism.

In Brazil, the beginning of the 1980’s was also marked by two centenaries that agitated the academic, journalistic, and political channels of the time, especially in the Court of Rio de Janeiro: the tercentenary of Camões’ death, in June 10, 1880, and the first centenary of the Marquis of Pombal, in May 11, 1882. As Oliveira (2014) reminds us, the centenary celebrations started to stand out as ritualistic practices of strong patriotic appeal in Europe from the end of the 19^th century. In Portugal, Teófilo Braga and Emídio Garcia were acknowledged as the founders of centenary celebrations under the Comtian⁷ paradigm. In this sense, civic commemorations are the sacralization of a version of the national past from a specific occurrence or a historical personality.

In turn, in 1881 the Portuguese José Palmella (1838-1932) published in Rio de Janeiro, under the auspices of commander F. A. Ferreira de Mello, a beautiful edition of his book O centenário e a vida do Marquez de Pombal, which announced its motivation in its subtitle: “[...] biographic study about the life of the first political genius of Portugal, adorned with a new portrait, some critical notes, and many interesting documents, which highly honor the memory of the immortal grandfather of the Duke of Saldanha.” The unusual aspect of José Palmella’s book is the revelation of Pombal’s supposed indigenous - and, therefore, Brazilian - ancestry. Hence he opposes biographers who claimed that D. José’s minister was from Soure or Lisbon; he explains that, “as per inquiries conducted by the most authoritative historians, chroniclers, and biographers […],” the Marquis’ ancestry from his mother’s side referred to “a leafy truck of the most opulent and strong race of Tupí people, sovereign dominator of other tribes, such as that of Caeté people, who, in the beginning of the 16^th century, lived in the virginal forests [...]” of “[...] the old Merim, today the poetic Olinda, in Pernambuco” (Palmella, 1883, p. 14, our translation).

Such unreal and very unlikely thesis went to newspaper pages, such as those in the edition of A Constituição from Ceará in May 7, 1882, which justified Pombal’s centenary celebration in Brazil on the grounds of his alleged indigenous origins (apud Oliveira, 2014). The edition of the book to which we had access, the fourth one, was dedicated to the Baron of Wildick, Pedro Afonso André de Figueiredo, General Consul of Portugal, and included “[...] diverse additional notes, which tend to clarify many questionable points and to refute numerous mistakes different writers committed: - Pinheiro Chagas, Innocencio da Silva, Ramalho Ortigão, and others just as prominent in the literary and scientific spheres” (Palmella, 1883, p. vii, our translation). In this version of the work, the author reproduces some notes from newspapers published between January and May of 1882.

To the Portuguese writer, the expulsion of the Jesuits and the closure of their schools meant an advance in terms of method and content, with the arrival of new knowledge and disciplines. In addition to taking care of people’s education with the reforms of minor studies in 1759 and 1772, Pombal would have worried about the instruction of wealthier classes, as the founding of the Royal College of the Nobles in 1762 proves. This institution dignified military teaching and propagated, at least to the few enrolled students, knowledge on experimental science and modern foreign languages, such as English and French.

In the last part of the book, the author emphasizes Pombal’s liberal and ‘democratic’ role, mentioning a series of charters to demonstrate that his governmental actions were powerful to end prejudice, like that existing among new and old Christians in relation to Brazilian indigenous peoples and black people of Portugal. His fall and decay are considered unfair, as well as the usurpation of his mortal remains by French soldiers and the removal of his medallion under the equestrian statue of D. José I by the people. With his death, the inquisitorial monkhood dominated Portugal again, under the queen’s protection, and soon the country returned to the state of decadence in which it was during the reign of D. João V: “Pombal will always, always shine through history as a great star who, honoring the century when he lived, will illuminate his nation, conducting it to the apogee of material greatness and to the scientific and political glory” (Palmella, 1883, p. 89, our translation).

There were celebrations of the Pombaline centenary in the provinces of São Paulo and Pernambuco as well. The newspaper A Provincia de São Paulo, which had published two articles - one written by Saldanha Marinho and the other by Teófilo Braga, with the aim of “[...] honoring the memory of one of the century’s greatest reformers [...]” -, in its edition of May 9, 1882, announced that the parties in the provincial capital started at dawn, with rounds of rockets and musical bands. In the afternoon, there was a ‘parade’ with the presence of many corporations, and, in the evening, with main streets lighted, lots of people would have attended a crowded marche auxflambeaux. The gala ball would happen that night, scheduled to happen at the hall of Gymnastic Club (apud Oliveira, 2014, p. 90, our translation). As in Camões’ tercentenary, the Portuguese Royal Reading Cabinet of Recife organized the celebrations of Pombal’s centenary in the capital of Pernambuco. Besides the schedule especially planned for the occasion, the Portuguese institution released a commemorative book in honor of the Marquis’ figure, published by Tipografia Industrial in 1882, with the portrait of Pombal painted by the Portuguese artist G. Barradas: O Marquez de Pombal -commemoração do primeiro centenário de sua morte pelo Gabinete Portuguez de Leitura em Pernambuco, by A. de Souza Pinto.

However, the most important initiative of the Pombaline centenary in Brazil was undoubtedly that of the Guanabara Rowing Club of Rio de Janeiro, which took place at Pedro II Imperial Theater in May 8, 1882. Rui Barbosa (1849-1923), at the time the General Deputy of the Empire, was the main speaker to pay tributes to the Marquis of Pombal, identifying positive impacts of his action in Brazilian life. The Program of celebrations, developed on May 3, 1882 by the ‘Great Executive Commission of the Marquis of Pombal’s first centenary celebration’, was made available on May 7 in Gazeta de Notícias, with a detailed description of the preparations for the festivities. The celebrations occurred on May 8, 11, and 14 and included: a solemn session headed by the minister of the empire at the Guanabara Rowing Club hall; distribution of commemorative medals personalized just for the Pombaline centenary; reading of the list of people and corporations that would get 50 copies of the special edition of a book to be printed at the National Press of Lisbon and a literary and musical soirée with a conference of Rui Barbosa and a concert with the maestro Leopoldo Miguez (1850-1902), republican and future composer of the Anthem of the Proclamation of the Republic, in addition to a rowing of amateurs and professionals at Botafogo bay, with award presentations to the winners and fireworks at night (apud Papassoni, 2018).

Rui Barbosa’s speech was published in that same year, 1882, by the typography of Q. Leuzinnger & Filhos, at the request of the Guanabara Rowing Club. The text of the notorious orator from Bahia is remarkable for its grandiloquent nature, with inverted syntaxes, profuse adjectivization and literary references - mostly to Camões and Shakespeare. In long periods of rhythm and sonority thoroughly arranged to please the ear, horrifying scenes of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake are described in bright colors, from where the heroic figure of Pombal emerges through epic scenes of Greek mythology and modern literature.

When referring to the expulsion of the Jesuits, Rui Barbosa reiterates the anti-Jesuit discourse of his Portuguese contemporaries. Therefore, by condemning D. João III again for handing the kingdom over in 1540 to them, he summarily describes the damages in ‘official teaching’ the priests of the Society of Jesus caused. To the orator, the Loyola Order used pedagogy and faith as political instruments to govern countries through the possession of souls, replacing freedom with obedience, intelligence with reliance, consciousness with confession, moral with probability, and religious sentiment with pietism (Barbosa, 1882).

The minister’s cruelty and authoritarianism are minimized and justified as obscurantism of the time; it would not be possible to get humanitarian results without barbarity, something necessary to prepare the listeners - and later the readers - to the great revolution of the Portuguese statesman in social reforms: ‘his reorganization of teaching’, which included what the author terms ‘popular instruction’ and science dissemination. The speaker mentions some measures responsible for replacing the outdated Jesuit pedagogy, which Luís António Verney (1713-1792) criticized in his Verdadeiro método de estudar... (1746), with the most modern ideas from Europe, namely: reform in humanities teaching (1759); founding of the Royal College of the Nobles (1761); creation of 837 chairs of primary and secondary instruction (1772); and, finally, reform of University of Coimbra (1772). Rui Barbosa ends his encomiastic framework placing Pombal in a timeless and anachronistic dimension as philanthropist, liberal, and abolitionist.

The book O Marquês de Pombal - obra comemorativa do centenário de sua morte, edited by the Guanabara Rowing Club of Rio de Janeiro, was published only in 1885 in Lisbon by the National Press in a luxurious edition of 727 pages. The cover page of the work reproduces a famous portrait of Pombal made by Antônio Onofre Schiappa Pietra (1802-1878), in addition to indications of the publication in the following pages, including the list of members of the Executive Commission with collaborators and 50 personalities and institutions that would receive a special edition of the book. The volume consists of two parts: the first one presents an unsigned historical-biographical essay of 515 pages of the Marquis of Pombal, which was likely written by Latino Coelho; and the second one gathers different articles, containing two works in foreign languages - one in German, signed by the German historian George Weber (1808-1888), and another by the Italian linguist and orientalist Angelo de Gubernatis (1840-1913). The list of Portuguese contributors includes the historian Oliveira Martins (1845-1894), Júlio Xavier de Mattos (1856-1922) - born in Rio de Janeiro but raised in Portugal, where he made a career in psychiatry - and, of course, Emídio Garcia and Teófilo Braga. Among the Brazilians were Rui Barbosa, who had the text of his opening speech published separately, as we saw, Silvio Romero (1851-1914), the jurist Tomás Alves Junior (1830-1895), Henrique Correia Moreira, Portuguese naturalized Brazilian in 1857, president of the Bank of Commerce and director of the newspaper O Cruzeiro, and, finally, Machado de Assis (1839-1908).

Latino Coelho’s long essay is simply entitled ‘O Marquez de Pombal’ and is divided in 12 chapters. Among the ‘social reforms’ the minister of D. José I implemented, those related to teaching are the most valued. Therefore, by condemning the pedagogical action of the Jesuits, who had submitted the kingdom and the colonies to their vicious and ineffective influence, the author claims that emancipating schools from the ‘theocratic power’ was necessary, replacing the sterile pedantry with science and useful knowledge. This reasoning, according to Coelho (1885, p. 263), informed the minister’s decision to establish the Commerce Classes in 1759 and the Royal College of the Nobles in 1761. Despite the controversy about its efficacy as a substitution to Jesuit schools, the reform in humanities teaching of June 28, 1759 is praised for the importance of creating the position of Director of Studies and the ‘literary subsidy’ - tax transformed in law by the Charter of November 10, 1772 with the aim of financing the payment of teachers and masters -, as well as the new Latin teaching method. The author also compliments the innovative nature of the reforms of minor schools and University of Coimbra in 1772.

One of the book chapters is reserved for a group of 14 sonnets entitled ‘A derradeira injúria’ and signed by Machado de Assis. As in every poetic work of the distinguished chronicler, short story writer, and novelist from Rio de Janeiro - a year before the celebration of the Pombaline centenary, he had published his most important novel, Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas -, the poem presents the formal precision that is typical of classical forms. In addition to the title and the epigraph - “E ainda, nymphas minhas, não bastava [...]” [And still, my Nymphs, 'twas not enough] (verse from Os Lusíadas, by Camões) -, sonnets numbered from I to XIV are posed in a versified narrative sequence. The funeral tone, the theme, the metric and rhymed structure, the present time of the poetic persona, and the historical moment are perceptible to the reader right in the first quatrain, in which the scenario of the poem’s main action is drawn: the coffin where the mortal remains of the Marquis of Pombal were, at the Church of Our Lady of Cardal. The historical moment, in turn, is given in the second quatrain: the French invasion in Portuguese territory, which began in 1810 under the command of marshal André Masséna (Assis, 1885, p. 21-22).

Papassoni (2018), who conducts a thorough formal and interpretive analysis of the poem, noticed that there is a big difference between Machado’s attitude in Camões’ tercentenary and in the Pombaline centenary. In the first event, in addition to writing the theater play Tu, só tu, puro amor especially for the occasion, about the palatial loves between Camões and D. Catarina de Ataíde, something that also got the attention of the emperor D. Pedro II (1825-1891), he wrote four sonnets dedicated to the Portuguese poet. These sonnets were published in commemorative editions of the tercentenary and subsequently selected by Machado to be part of the volume Poesias completas, launched in 1901. As for the Pombaline centenary, he seemingly wanted to exempt himself, given that Pombal was and still is not a consensual figure like Camões. In effect, some objections to the celebrations had been occurring in the literary scene and the press from Rio de Janeiro and, hitherto, no record of Machado’s presence in the ceremonies was found. Moreover, Machado himself did not include the poem in his Poesias completas (1901). The ambiguous nature of the poem sets it apart from the collection of writings in which it is inserted, even though it shares similarities with them in relation to how it deals with some consensuses about Pombal’s biography at the time.

The following chapter of the book, O Marquez de Pombal e a civilisação brasileira, is signed by Silvio Romero. According to the professor, literary critic, and historian from Sergipe, Pombal should be considered “[...] a powerful factor in the development of Brazil [...]”, responsible for “[...] founding a people in a new continent [...]”, hence preparing the “[...] Brazilian nation” (Romero, 1885, p. 31-32, our translation). Therefore, the great minister would have had time to take care especially of Brazil, the richest Portuguese domain, obtaining more brilliant results here than in Europe, even if he had to fight against traces of the Middle Ages in Portugal, represented by the clergy and the nobility, allowing the lights of the century in the kingdom and its colonies.

To prove his arguments, the author states that many Brazilians have occupied important positions for the country or have stood out in sciences or the Republic of Letters since Pombal’s time. Some examples are D. Francisco de Lemos (1735-1822), Bishop of Coimbra, dean and reformer of the university; D. Francisco da Assunção (1726-1808), rhetoric professor and Bishop of Olinda; D. José Joaquim de Azeredo Coutinho (1742-1821), Bishop of Olinda and later general inquisitor of the kingdom, during the reign of D. João VI (1767-1826); José Bonifácio de Andrada (1763-1838), naturalist and statesman of Santos village, who became ‘patriarch of independence’; José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (1742-1811), botanist and professor, author of Florae fluminensis (1825-1831); José Feliciano Fernandes Pinheiro (1774-1847), who translated works considered applicable to the national industry; José da Silva Lisboa (1756-1835), deputy and secretary of the Inspection of Agriculture and Commerce Board of Bahia; Hipólito José da Costa (1774-1822), editor of Correio Braziliense in London; and the list of notable Brazilian arcadian poets: Cláudio Manuel da Costa (17291789); Basílio da Gama; Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744-1810); Santa Rita Durão (1722-1784); Inácio José de Alvarenga Peixoto (1744-1793); Silva Alvarenga (1749-1814), among others.

To Romero, who assures that D. José’s minister vagally thought about changing the headquarters of the monarchy to Belém, Pará, contributing to the progress of ‘our’ country as an extension of the ‘western civilization’, Pombal had paved the way to the Minas Gerais Conspiracy. The author goes on and points out some measures of the statesman, decontextualizing them for his own purposes, that is, to prove the reach of Pombal’s political-administrative actions for Brazilian development, especially concerning the expulsion of the Jesuits, the development of commerce, and the creation of ‘public schools’ (Romero, 1885).

Teaching reforms in the Pombaline bicentenary

The resolution n. 18/82, from the presidency of the Portuguese Council of Ministers, dated January 14, 1982 and signed by the Prime Minister Francisco José Pereira Pinto Balsemão, is as a preamble; it also sets the tone for the celebrations of Pombal’s death bicentenary. Away from the Pombalist and antipombalist pomp and bipolarity of the first centenary, the reverberations of the bicentenary occurred mostly in academic and intellectual environments. The approaches of most books, essays, communications, and papers about the theme sought to avoid extremism, considering positive and negative aspects of his governance (Resolution nº 18, 1982).

The exposition of the National Library of Lisbon was an important initiative of the Organizing Committee of the Death Bicentenary of the Marquis of Pombal, held from November 1982 to January 1983, which led to the Catálogo bibliográfico e iconográfico e o Catálogo da exposição relativa ao marquês de Pombal (1983). The presentation of the work organized by António Barreto is also quite symptomatic of the new approach to D. José’s minister in his bicentenary. Right in the beginning, Barreto (1982, p. 9) claims that the work was neither a tribute nor did it sought to take a stand “[...] in none of the quarrels perpetuated for two hundred years under the name of Marquis of Pombal or under his pretense”. It was, as per the author, only a work instrument, a research tool, and not a positioning ‘against’ or ‘for’ Pombal or his govern to the history of Portugal. Therefore, it was not a bibliographic and iconographic catalog about him but about his historical moment, that is, about the time and society in which he lived, given that the studies which did not carry value judgement analysis about his greatness or misery were rare, and the controversy was already popular.

In addition to the catalogues published by the National Library, in 1982 the two-volume dossier ‘O Marquês de Pombal e o seu tempo’, organized by Luís Reis Torgal and Isabel Vargues and issued in the IV number of Revista de História da Ideias, of the History and Theory of Ideas Institute of the Faculty of Languages and Literature of the University of Coimbra. The introduction to the first volume, entitled ‘Acerca do significado do Pombalismo’ and written by Luís Reis Torgal, presents an overview of ideological uses of the Marquis’ figure. It starts with the first centenary of his death in 1882 and the opposition between liberals and republicans on the one hand, traditionalists and conservatives on the other. The first, as previously mentioned, elected Pombal as their precursor and the latter, along with Catholic forces, stigmatized the celebrations as ‘revolutionary’, ‘freemason’, and ‘irreligious’. Only in the 20^th century Pombalism would stop being ‘something political’ to become a ‘scientific reflection’ (Torgal, 1982).

The celebrations of the Pombaline bicentenary also led to the publication of the collection Pombal revisitado in 1984 in two volumes, which Maria Helena Carvalho dos Santos organized. The work gathered texts produced for the International Colloquium, coordinated by the Commission of Celebrations of the Second Death Centenary of the Marquis of Pombal, which had happened two years before. Many intellectuals who wrote to the dossier of Revista de História das Ideias presented communications, like the organizer, who signed the article ‘Poder, intelectuais e contra-poder’, in which she claims that Pombal intended to put public instruction in service of the country, by expelling the Jesuits and formulating his educational reforms. António Cruz’s essay, ‘Nota sobre os estudos menores na reforma pombalina do ensino’, deserves to be highlighted. A previous version of this text, entitled ‘Nota sobre a reforma pombalina da instrução pública’, was published in 1971 in Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. Like many authors who tried to relativize Pombal’s prominence at that time - and, consequently, the innovative nature of his measures -, Cruz (1971) refers to the reign of D. João V (1707-1750) as a preparatory period to the flow of Enlightenment ideas in the first half of the 18^th century, claiming that the teaching reform was determined by the sociocultural scenario of the Johannine period. Another text worthy of attention is O Marquês de Pombal e o ensino no Brasil (revisão crítica do tema), by António Alberto Banha de Andrade (1915-1982), in which the author complements and revises pieces of information from his book published in 1978. Banha de Andrade passed away in the year of the Pombaline bicentenary, leaving behind a relevant legacy to the studies of the history of pedagogical ideas in Portugal, some examples are Verney e a cultura do seu tempo (1966); A reforma pombalina dos estudos secundários (1759-1771): contribuição para a história da pedagogia em Portugal (1981), in two volumes, and Contributos para a história da mentalidade pedagógica portuguesa (1982).

Yet another important work resulting from the Pombaline bicentenary celebrations should be mentioned: Como interpretar Pombal? (1983), which, according to the editors’ ‘Explanatory Note’, comes from four numbers of the journal Brotéria, under the direction of the Jesuit priest Manuel Antunes (1918-1985), who wrote the opening chapter. In almost every text of the book, there is a critical questioning of Pombal’s measures, in an attempt to demystify some common ideas his defenders reproduce. When he writes about the ‘Legal debate and Pombaline solution’, for instance, Mário Júlio de Almeida Costa states that Verney’s propositions and suggestions to legal education, despite being adopted in the reform of the University of Coimbra, “[...] did not present immediate results [...]”, even though the transformations undertaken by the minister had gradually affected scientific activity and jurists’ practice, in addition to punctually modifying the legislation (Costa, 1982, p. 95, our translation). Similarly, the priest Manuel Antunes (1982), in the chapter ‘O Marquês de Pombal e os jesuítas’, narrates how the minister kept friendly relations with Ignatian priests, such as João Baptista Carbone (1694-1750), José Moreira, and José Ritter, before he took up his position in the government. The author, in this sense, portraits Pombal as ambitious and dissimulator. António Leite, in turn, in ‘Pombal e o ensino secundário’, goes further. He lists more than 40 teaching institutions the Jesuits founded in the kingdom and its colonies until the reform of 1759, including the ‘Sphere Class’ that existed at the Santo Antao College since 1590. By doing so, he sought to show that not only did the Pombaline reform fail to replace Jesuit colleges and schools with enough royal ‘Classes’ or ‘Masters’, leaving many pupils without classes in several locations in Portugal and, above all, in its colonies, but also, unlike the nearly unanimous claims, scientific teaching was not unfamiliar to Jesuits because the ‘Sphere Class’ included astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, mechanics, ‘art of sailing’, among other subjects. Moreover, the reform of the University of Coimbra led to a rough reduction in the number of students, with “[…] lack of interest in scientific studies” (Leite, 1982, p. 181, our translation).

In Brazil, the Pombaline bicentenary had repercussions in the form of publications, three of which deserve to be highlighted: Pombal e a cultura brasileira, collection published in 1982 and organized by Antonio Paim; A época pombalina: política econômica e monarquia ilustrada, synthesis work published in the same year by Francisco Calazans Falcon; and O marquês de Pombal (súmula de sua vida e obra), by Claudio de Britto Reis, originally released in 1973, with a second commemorative edition in 1982.

Pombal e a cultura brasileira gathers texts from the I Portuguese-Brazilian Congress of Philosophy, organized by the Gama Filho University and the Portuguese Catholic University in 1982, with the publication of Actas in the volume 38, issue 4 of the Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, from the NOVA University Lisbon. In addition to the organizer, who contributes with ‘Categorias para a análise da herança pombalina na cultura brasileira’ and a biographical essay about D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho (1755-1812), others were part of the collection, namely: Adolfo Crippa (1929-2000), who signs the text ‘O Conceito de filosofia na época pombalina’; the Portuguese professor Duarte Klut, who authored ‘O momento pedagógico pombalino: referências bibliográficas’; Tiago Adão Lara (1930-2019), who published the article ‘Melo Freire e os primórdios do tradicionalismo luso-brasileiro’; Elpidio Marcolino Cardoso, who wrote ‘Azeredo Coutinho e o Seminário de Olinda’; and Ricardo Vélez Rodrigues, who signed the text entitled ‘Persistência do patrimonialismo modernizador na cultura brasileira’. The book ends with an appendix in which the text from the entry ‘Pombal’, from Dicionário de história de Portugal (1968), directed by Joel Serrão, is transcribed.

When he discusses ‘Categories to the analysis of the Pombaline inheritance in the Brazilian culture’, Antonio Paim establishes the initiatives that gave meaning to Pombal’s ideologies as a starting point of what he calls ‘Pombaline moment’; some examples are the creation of the Royal College of the Nobles in 1761 and the reform of the University of Coimbra in 1772, including the organization of the Royal Military Academy of Rio de Janeiro in 1810. To the author, the evolution of the scientific mentality in the country has happened in three ‘cycles’: the Pombaline, from 1810 until the 1970’s; the positivist, from the Proclamation of the Republic until the 1930’s; and the Marxist, “[...] with the contests of Hermes Lima (1902/1978) and Leônidas de Resende (1889-1959) from the beginning of the 1930’s in the National Faculty of Law until now” (Paim, 1982a, p. 14-15, our translation). In his text about D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, Paim considers him the ‘new Pombal’, understanding the Military Academy of Rio de Janeiro as a great educational and cultural initiative (Paim, 1982b, p. 86). Duarte Klut, in turn, regards the Marquis as a strong and haughty personality, with flaws and qualities but which instituted a more adequate atmosphere to modernity in Portugal through teaching, that is, he made the country more prone to philosophical speculation and scientific investigation. To the author, his more original creation in education was the Commerce Class, “[...] the first in Europe” (Klut, 1982, p. 33, our translation). In the chapter dedicated to ‘Azeredo Coutinho and the Seminar of Olinda’ - according to the author, composed of excerpts of his Master’s Thesis entitled Tendências renovadoras e conservadoras na filosofia da educação de José Joaquim da Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho, defended in 1975 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro -, Elpídio Marcolino Cardoso claims that Azeredo Coutinho was the first educational authority in Brazil to “[...] effectively apply Pombal’s reform” (Cardoso, 1982, p. 53, our translation).

A época pombalina: política econômica e monarquia ilustrada, by Francisco José Calazans Falcon, published in 1982, was originally a professorship thesis defended in 1976 at the Modern History Sector of the History Department of the Fluminense Federal University. As he explained 26 year later, it is “[...] a synthesis work focused on the analysis of the main texts from the epoch in which mercantilist and Enlightened ideas and practices typical of the Pombaline period are materialized” (Falcon, 2008, p. 221, our translation). Much more than the title suggests, Falcon’s work is a reference to several areas still today, given that it deals with political, economic, legal, philosophical, ideological pedagogical, linguistic, and cultural matters because the author tried to discuss every theme involved in what he calls ‘Pombaline epoch’, dividing his work into two parts. The first one intitled ‘Mercantilismo e Ilustração’, in which he approaches ‘A problemática europeia’ [‘The European problematic’] (chapter I); ‘O Mercantilismo e sua época’ [Mercantilism and its epoch] (chapter II); and ‘A Ilustração e sua época’ [Illustration and its epoch] (chapter III). The second part, entitled ‘Mercantilismo e Ilustração em Portugal - a época pombalina (1750-1777)’, is subdivided in ‘A problemática ibérica’ [The Iberian problematic] (chapter IV); ‘O ideário do pombalismo’ [The Pombaline ideology] (chapter V); and ‘A prática do pombalismo’ [The Pombaline practice] (chapter VI). The book also includes a ‘General bibliography’ commented.

The matters related to teaching are discussed in the topic entitled ‘A prática ideológica’, included in chapter VI. According to Falcon (1993, p. 429), the “[...] main guideline [...]” of Pombalist practices “[...] in the ideological level itself [...]” is its violent anti-Jesuit campaign, which persisted, at least in a discursive level, even after their final downfall in 1759, when the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and its domains and were prohibited to teach, hence losing their almost monopoly over education. Their decay lasted until the definitive suppression of the Order by Clement XIV (1705- 1774) in 1773.

Although the author joins other intellectuals of the period in the general movement of critically revising the work and contributions of Pombal, he acknowledges that there is a relative consensus in relation to the disruptive nature of Pombaline reforms. Based on A. Martins, writer of the entry ‘Luzes’ [Lights] of Dicionário de história de Portugal (1963), he differentiates the ‘Johannine lights’ from ‘Pombaline lights’, claiming that the first are marked by an aristocratic - due to the Ericeiras - and religious - given the protection of D. João V towards the Oratorians -; meanwhile, the latter refers to a governing and despotic action with the aim of rationally and pragmatically transforming the country. To Falcon, the Pombaline governance was imposed as an unprecedented rupture in the Portuguese history, considering that it proposed structural changes, especially his public instruction reform, which had a pioneer role in Europe by linking teaching to the national government and institutionalizing the teaching profession. This perspective permeates his discussion of the humanities teaching reform from 1759, Commerce Class, created in the same year, the Minor Studies reform, and the reform of the University of Coimbra, both in 1772 (Falcon, 1993).

O Marquês de Pombal (súmula de sua vida e obra), by Claudio de Britto Reis, was initially released in 1973 but had a commemorative edition in the death bicentenary of D. José’s minister in 1982. In the work preface, the author, who was born in Ribeira do Pombal in Bahia, states that the main reason for his publication was to let everyone know “[...] a rare synthesis about the renovator work of the MARQUIS OF POMBAL” (Reis, 1982, p. 9, our translation). With this aim, the book is divided into three parts: the first one composed of a 40-page preface in which all initiatives of the Pombaline governance are listed uncritically and flatteringly. The author’s arguments are based on some studies and classic texts, such as those of João Lúcio de Azevedo (1855-1933)⁸ and Rui Barbosa. In much of the text, he tries to justify the expulsion of the Jesuits and the renovation of studies which was promoted.

In the second part of the book, some passages of the work published by the Guanabara Rowing Club in 1885 are transcribed and compiled as an element of the Pombaline centenary celebrations. Finally, the last part presents three short texts about the origin of three places named after Pombal, the one in Portugal, the one in Paraíba, and the one in Bahia, and some letters the author received when the first edition of the book was published.

Final considerations

In line with the findings of Franco and Rita (2004), who analyzed the Portuguese case, this article, which focuses on the Brazilian scenario, reveals that Pombalism and antipombalism can be observed in their discursive representations in biographies, essays, as well as historiographical and commemorative texts during the centenary and bicentenary of the Marquis of Pombal. These contrasting groups contributed to make Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo a ‘bipolar myth’, even after the intellectuals involved in the 1982 events adopted a more distanced or critical approach. Therefore, some features observed in pictorial, literary, and even cinematographic representations of Pombal or the Pombaline period are reinforced and consolidated, despite being questioned or refuted by a minority of researchers.

The main one is his prominence in the political, cultural, and educational actions during the Josephine reign. In the case of teaching, the idea that every administrative, pedagogical, and even scientific instance went through his approval is almost unanimous, which creates, through affirmation or denial, the image of a super minister whose greatness overshadows even the king’s - something questionable when we consider that he lost all his power after the death of D. José I, as Serrão (1982) reminds us.

The celebrations of the first Pombaline centenary marked the main moment of his mystification, beginning an intense propaganda of glorification from which an anachronistic image of D. José’s minister as precursor of liberalism and democracy emerged. In addition to debates in the press and in political and academic circles, a great deal of commemorative texts was produced and published, most of which were laudatory, except for the previously mentioned Perfil by Camilo Castelo Branco (1882), which followed a different direction, along with his sympathizers, supporters, and certain press sectors. Masonry had a relevant role in this process, given its interest to revive the Pombaline anti-Jesuitism to fight the new outbreak of Ignatians, which invaded the country, according to its members. Indeed, it was the Order Council that gave the idea, through the Boletim Official do Grande Oriente Lusitano Unido, series 1881-1882, of building a big monument in memory of the Marquis of Pombal, mobilizing all stores to search for and gather funds and sponsorships. The plan, which generated controversial discussions in the press and among politicians, would only be carried out in the following century, in 1934, when the statue of the famous minister was inaugurated in the roundabout square, in the heart of Lisbon.

In Brazil, the centenary of the Marquis of Pombal continued the Portuguese model. Unlike Camões’ case, who was and still is a consensual figure in the pantheon of Portuguese language and literature, the centenary celebration of a contradictory historical character such as Pombal raised doubts and controversies. In this context, his name was used as motto to praise the scientific advances, secularization, and modernization of his government and hide negative or controversial points of his biography. Positivists and republicans took the role of explaining and emphasizing the gains of his governance to Brazil; some examples are prestigious intellectuals of the time like the Portuguese Latino Coelho and Teófilo Braga, and the Brazilians Rui Barbosa, Machado de Assis, and Sílvio Romero.

The death bicentenary of the Marquis of Pombal, in turn, raised a number of questions about the very notion of the Pombaline epoch or period as a historical construction, given that people started to interpret its historical meaning based on a critical perspective and on existing sources rather than prioritizing controversies around his personality or the actions of his government. Furthermore, Pombal’s prominence was a discursive construction of both his advocates and supporters, who were consensual in disqualifying any kind of initiative from D. José, something which becomes problematic when one considers that the minister completely lost his power with the king’s death, falling into disrepute at court, as Serrão clarifies in his biography (1982).

After the Pombaline bicentenary, many of the events held and the works published in Portugal and Brazil sought to show impartiality in their assessments, and in fact several scientifically and historically relevant research studies were published and/or reedited in this period, as previously discussed. In the Brazilian case, although all three publications previously listed aimed to line with the critical review and allegedly ‘neutral’ or ‘scientific’ stance adopted in Portugal, the authors present favorable views in relation to the teaching reforms of the Pombaline period, opposing the influential judgement of Fernando de Azevedo, in A cultura brasileira. According to Falcon, the teaching reforms undertaken under the Pombaline govern represent a rupture in the Portuguese history, especially for linking teaching to the national government and for institutionalizing the teaching profession. In the case of Paim's book, the author, like other contributors, positively assesses what he calls ‘Pombaline cycle’, especially the aspects related to instruction. Finally, in the case of Claudio de Britto Reis, the fact that the author inserted some excerpts from the work published by the Guanabara Rowing Club in 1885 is a significant indication of his anachronistic Pombalism.

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that Fernando de Azevedo’s reading - although antipombalist -, pioneer in the Brazilian history of education, presents a curious alignment with the critical review of the Pombaline legacy conducted in 1982, above all those of Jesuit intellectuals, such as Manuel Antunes and later António Lopes, who raised a fundamental issue to Pombaline studies: the difficulty to study Pombal based on the sources he produced in his propagandistic action. Therefore, the alleged hiatus represented by the Pombaline teaching reforms is gradually overcome by historical readings and interpretations, which put them back in the historiographical narrative of Brazilian education, albeit in an incipient way. Apparently, only throughout the 1990s, some authors began to acknowledge that Pombal’s reforms were capable of “[…] giving education a new direction, both in the metropolis and in the colony, in terms of methodological, content, and organizational renovation [...]”, as Hilsdorf (2003, p. 15, our translation) claims, hence inverting Fernando de Azevedo’s reading, which describes the post-Pombaline period in terms of decadence and transition. However, this is a topic for another article.

Referências

• Antunes, M. (1982). “O Marquês de Pombal e os jesuítas”. In M. Antunes (Org.), Como interpretar Pombal? No bicentenário de sua morte (p. 125-144). Lisboa, PT: Edições Brotéria.
• Assis, M. (1885). “A derradeira injúria. In Marquez de Pombal: obra commemorativa do centenário da sua morte mandada publicar pelo Club de Regatas Guanabarense do Rio de Janeiro (p. 21-30). Lisboa, PT: Imprensa Nacional.
• Azevedo, F. (1971). A cultura brasileira (5a ed.). São Paulo, SP: Melhoramentos.
• Barbosa, R. (1882). Centenario do Marquez de Pombal: discurso pronunciado a 8 de maio de 1882... Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Typ. de Leuzinger & Filhos.
• Barbosa, R. (1882). Centenario do Marquez de Pombal: discurso pronunciado a 8 de maio de 1882... Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Typ. de Leuzinger & Filhos .
• Barreto, A. (Coord.). (1982). Marquês de Pombal: catálogo bibliográfico e iconográfico Lisboa, PT: Biblioteca Nacional.
• Barthes, R. (2007). Mitologias (José Augusto Seabra, trad.). Lisboa, PT: Edições 70.
• Bebiano, R. (1982). “O 1.° centenário pombalino (1882): contributo para a sua compreensão histórica”. Revista de História das Ideias,4(II ), 381-428.
• Bontempi Junior, B. (1995). História da educação brasileira: o terreno do consenso (Dissertação de Mestrado). Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.
• Branco, C. C. (1882). Perfil do Marquez de Pombal Porto, PT: Clavel & Cia.
• Brito, F. (1990). Cantigas de escárnio e mal-dizer do marquês de Pombal, ou a crônica rimada da viradeira Porto, PT: Associação de Jornalistas e Homens de Letras do Porto.
• Cardoso, E. M. (1982). “Azeredo Coutinho e o Seminário de Olinda”. In A. Paim (Org.), Pombal e A cultura brasileira (p. 50-83). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Tempo Brasileiro.
• Carvalho, L. R. (1978). As reformas pombalinas da instrução pública São Paulo, SP: Saraiva.
• Coelho, L. (1885). “O Marquez de Pombal”. In Marquez De Pombal: obra commemorativa do centenário da sua morte mandada publicar pelo Club de Regatas Guanabarense do Rio de Janeiro (p. 1-151). Lisboa, PT: Imprensa Nacional .
• Costa, M. J. A. (1982). “Debate jurídico e solução pombalina”. In M. Antunes (Org.), Como interpretar Pombal? No bicentenário de sua morte (p. 81-107). Lisboa, PT: Edições Brotéria .
• Cruz, A. (1971). “Nota sobre a reforma pombalina da instrução pública”. Revista da Faculdade de Letras, (02), 1-64.
• Denis, F. (2018). Resumo da história literária de Portugal seguido do resumo da história literária do Brasil (Regina Zilberman, trad.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Edições Makunaima.
• Falcon, F. J. C. (1993). A época pombalina (2a ed.). São Paulo, SP: Ática.
• Falcon, F. J. C. (2008). “Governação pombalina e luzes nos trópicos - entre polêmicas e interpretações: alguns aspectos do período pombalino”. Revista de História das Ideias , 29
• Franco, J. E., & Rita, A. (2004). O mito do Marquês de Pombal: a mitificação do primeiro-ministro de D. José pela maçonaria Lisboa, PT: Prefácio Editora.
• Franco, J. E., & Figueiredo, V. (2018). “Antipombalismo”. In J. E. Franco (Dir.), Dicionário dos antis: a cultura portuguesa em negativo (Vol. 2, p. 1474-1481). Lisboa, PT: Imprensa Nacional .
• Garcia, M. E. (1869). O Marquês de Pombal. Lance d’olhos sobre a sua ciência, política e administração; ideias liberais que o dominavam, plano e primeiras tentativas democráticas Coimbra, PT: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.
• Garret, A. (1826). Parnaso lusitano ou poesias selectas dos auctores portuguezes antigos e modernos, illustradas com notas. Precedido de uma historia abreviada da lingua e poesia portugueza (Tomo I). Paris, FR: Em Casa de J. P. Aillaud.
• Hall, S. (Org.). (2003). Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices London, UK: Sage Publications.
• Hilsdorf, M. L. S. (2003). História da educação brasileira: leituras São Paulo, SP: Pioneira.
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• Leite, A. (1982). “Pombal e o ensino secundário”. In M. Antunes (Org.), Como interpretar Pombal? No bicentenário de sua morte (p. 165-181). Lisboa, PT: Edições Brotéria .
• Lopes, A. (2002). Enigma Pombal (2a ed.). Lisboa, PT: Roma Editora.
• Oliveira, S. L. (2014). A exploração simbólica do brasil em defesa do império lusitano: uma análise das comemorações cívicas e da literatura escolar portuguesa (1880- 1960) (Tese de Doutorado). Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra.
• Paim, A. (1982a). “Categorias para a análise da herança pombalina na cultura brasileira”. In A. Paim (Org.), Pombal e A cultura brasileira (p. 11-15). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Tempo Brasileiro .
• Paim, A. (1982b). “D. Rodrigo Sousa Coutinho (1755/1812). Notícia biográfica”. In In A. Paim (Org.), Pombal e A cultura brasileira (p. 84-109). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Tempo Brasileiro .
• Palmella, J. (1883). O centenário e vida do Marquez de Pombal (4a ed.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: O Commendador F. A. Ferreira de Mello.
• Papassoni, J. P. (2018). Uma perpétua lida: estudo sobre A derradeira injúria, de Machado de Assis (Dissertação de Mestrado). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
• Ramos, R. (2009). “Idade Contemporânea (séculos XIX-XXI)”. In R. Ramos (Coord.), História de Portugal (5a ed.). Lisboa, PT: A Esfera dos Livros.
• Resolução nº 18, de 1982. (1982, 30 de janeiro). Comemora-se em 1982 o bicentenário da morte do marquês de Pombal. Diário da República n 25, série I. Recuperado de: https://dre.pt/web/guest/pesquisa/-/search/600769/details/maximized?perPage=100&q=Constituição+da+República+Portuguesa
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• Reis, C. B. (1982). O marquês de Pombal (súmula de sua vida e obra) (2a ed. comemorativa do Bi-centenário da morte 1782-1982). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Edição do Autor.
• Romero, S. (1885). “O Marquez de Pombal e a civilisação brasileira”. In Marquez De Pombal: obra commemorativa do centenário da sua morte mandada publicar pelo Club de Regatas Guanabarense do Rio de Janeiro (p. 31-40). Lisboa, PT: Imprensa Nacional .
• Serrão, J. V. (1982). O Marquês de Pombal: o homem, o diplomata e o estadista Lisboa, PT: Câmaras Municipais de Libsoa, Oeiras e Pombal.
• Teixeira, I. (1999). Mecenato pombalino e poesia neoclássica: Basílio da Gama e a poética do encômio São Paulo, SP: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.
• Torgal, L. R. (1982). Nota introdutória: acerca do significado do Pombalismo. Revista de História das Ideias, 4(1).

• 5
  For Hall (2003), representation is the production of the meaning of concepts in our minds through language. Thus, it is the link between concepts and language that allows us to refer to the real world of objects, people or events, or even to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people and events. In the case of the Marquis of Pombal, his discursive representations, in biographies, historical novels, critical essays and commemorative texts in his honor are confused with his 'myth'. For Barthes (2007), myth is a speech, that is, a communication system, and cannot be conceived as an object, an idea or a form. Thus, everything that is capable of discourse is a myth. However, mythical discourse does not arise from the nature of things, but emerges from concrete historical circumstances, constituting itself as a semiological system in which language is understood not only in its verbal form, but as a significant unit that can encompass images and objects as long as they can become 'speech'.
• 6
  Laerte Ramos de Carvalho (1922-1972) and Banha de Andrade (1915-1982) are two exceptions. The first in a pioneer work in Brazil, As reformas pombalinas da instrução pública (1952), claimed to be “[...] very difficult to research the extent and scale of 1759 Pombaline reforms in Brazil” (Carvalho, 1978, p. 106, our translation). The second one, in A reforma pombalina dos estudos secundários no Brasil (1978), tried to reduce such difficulty by mapping correspondences between the General Director of Studies D. Tomás de Almeida and his Commissioners across captaincies of the colony.
• 7
  As per the author, Auguste Comte (1798-1857), in his Système de politique positive (1851), “[...] proposed - as a replacement to the Christian religion - the institution of the Human religion, defined as the worship of this collective entity consisting of human beings from the past who have contributed, in their own singular ways, to historical progress” (Oliveira, 2014, p. 51-52, our translation).
• 8
  Portuguese historian who lived in Belém, Pará, since the time he was a clerk, at 18, and author of O Marquês de Pombal e a sua época (1922). Despite his innovations, direct contact with sources, and methodological rigor, one can see in his narrative a poorly hidden antipombalism in the evaluation of the minister’s government, which is visible in the irony of his comments.
• 15
  Peer review rounds: R1: two invitations; two reports received
• 16
  How to cite this article: Oliveira, L. E. M. Pombalism and antipombalism in Brazil: representations of educational reforms in the centenary and bicentenary of the Marquis of Pombal. (2022). Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, 22. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4025/rbhe.v22.2022.e195 This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4) license.

Edited by

Responsible associate editor: Ana Clara Bortoleto Nery E-mail: [e-mail] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6316-3243

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  25 Feb 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  17 Feb 2021
• Accepted
  24 Sept 2021
• Published
  09 Dec 2021